Zambia has historically been one of the strongest
opponents of the ivory trade in southern Africa. In 1992, it publicly
burned its entire ivory stockpile -- nine metric tons -- as a gesture of
support for the ivory trade ban. This November, however, in a shocking
about-face, Zambia plans to push for a downgrading of protections for
Zambian elephants -- all so that it can profit from its current,
17-metric ton stockpile of confiscated ivory. In order to sell its
stockpile of ivory on the international market, Zambia will ask the
Parties at the upcoming Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to downlist elephants from
Appendix I (the category of species that may not be traded
internationally) to Appendix II (the category of species whose
international trade is legal but "regulated"). Such a move would be
disastrous for the elephants; when CITES attempted to control a "legal"
ivory trade in the 1980s, the resultant, massive increase in poaching
cut the number of African elephants in the wild from 1.2 million to
600,000. Only after the international ivory trade was banned in 1989 did
poaching dramatically decrease. A subsequent decision by CITES in 1997
to allow Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to sell their stockpiled ivory
to Japan on a one-time "experimental basis" precipitated a similar
increase in elephant poaching in both Asia and Africa so that today, it
is estimated that only 30,000 wild elephants remain in Asia and about
500,000 remain in Africa.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1.Contact the Zambian High Commission or Embassy and ask them to tell
the Zambian government not to submit a proposal to downlist elephants at
the next CITES meeting. Let them know that as a potential tourist, you'd
rather see live elephants in Zambia than ivory necklaces in Tokyo. In
the U.S., write to: The Embassy of the Republic of Zambia 2419
Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20008

2. Send an e-mail to the High Commissioner, Mr. S. K.
Mubukwanu (addressed as "Your Excellency"), by going to the Zambian High
Commission-UK's web page (http://www.zhcl.org.uk) and clicking on the
guest book.

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